Bridgend Soroptimists and their guests enjoyed (another) evening of fun, friendship and, of course, food at a dinner to welcome in the New Year and the new decade! The Club’s New Year Dinner was hosted at the Coed y Mwstwr Hotel and was very well attended. The food was excellent and conversation flowed. The evening was rounded off with a wonderful magician who entertained us with mind-reading, close-up magic and some traditional tricks.

My Personal Reflections and Christmas Wishes  I’d like to take a moment to share my thoughts with you. All the things we say and the great things that we do. Soroptimists are caring, so thoughtful and so true. Offering our skills, whilst imparting lots of knowledge too. We give so freely of our time to many deserving cases Whilst our International Women’s Day walks Really puts us through our paces. Fundraiser fashion shows and summer lunches, lots of fun Dinner at The Bear Hotel after a trip to the Physic Garden We help out Barnardo’s at Parc Prison Giving Service where we can Proud winners of the Welsh Volunteers of the Year Award For a listening ear and genuine helping hand. We donate to Ty Hafan. Which is a very worthy cause We support Empowering Girls in Nepal We don’t need any applause. Educate Empower

One of Bridgend Soroptimist’s Friendship Links is Soroptimist International Uusikaupunki in Finland. As well as contact throughout the year regarding projects and general Soroptimist news, at Christmas we exchange festive greetings. Here’s what Paula said.“Our club’s tradition is to have dinner together and usually we have some young people singing or playing for us. “This year we had a group of school boys performing an old (from the 16th century) play telling about the Three Wise Men and King Herod and the King of Mauritania and also how King Herod ordered all baby boys under two years old to be killed in order to have also the Baby Jesus to be killed among them. This play is called Tiernapojat which means Star Boys. This tradition has awakened a lot of discussion lately due to the predicted racism in it – the face of King of

Bridgend Soroptimists got the festive season off to a great start by celebrating International Night yesterday. A Carol Service was held in St David’s in Laleston followed by a lovely buffet at the Mackworth. President Sharon said, “That’s what I love to see – Soroptimist’s enjoying festive fun and friendship. And we raised money for the International President’s Appeal “The Road to Equality”. Thank you to Anne Hughes and her team for organising a great evening. Happy Christmas”